Community Policing As a Foundation for Building Resilient Communities and Reforming the Rule of Law in Mexico
Acevedo: Stepping Up the Mérida Initiative: Community Policing as a Founda COMMENT STEPPING UP THE MERIDA INITIATIVE: COMMUNITY POLICING AS A FOUNDATION FOR BUILDING RESILIENT COMMUNITIES AND REFORMING THE RULE OF LAW IN MEXICO I. INTRODUCTION: A SNAPSHOT OF MASSACRE, CAPTURE, AND COLLABORATION On August 2010, in an abandoned farm shed in the middle of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, Luis Fredy Lala Pomavilla escaped through the night in search of help.' After walking ten miles through the arid countryside with a gunshot wound to his neck, he stumbled across a military checkpoint where Mexican marines were stationed.2 The wounded migrant led the marines back to that abandoned farm shed.3 They raided the location and drew gunfire from the drug cartels, killing three gunmen and losing one marine.4 After the dust cleared, the marines entered the abandoned cinderblock farm shed and found a mass grave of bodies with their hands tied and faces blindfolded.5 The marines counted seventy-two bodies, all from different parts of Central and 1. See Gary Moore, Unraveling Mysteries of Mexico's San Fernando Massacre, INSIGHT CRIME (Sept. 19, 2011), http://www.insightcrime.org/investigations/unravelling-mysteries-of-mexicos-san- fernando-massacre. 2. See. E. Eduardo Castillo, Mexico Migrants Massacre: Drug Cartel Suspected in Killing of 72, HUFFINGTON POST (Aug. 26, 2010, 11:54 AM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/26/mexico-migrants-massacre- _n_695299.html; Moore, supra note 1. 3. See Survivor Details Massacre of 72 Migrants by Drug Cartel in Mexico, Fox NEWS (Aug. 25, 2010), http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/08/25/mexican- govemment-migrants-dead-ranch-killed-zetas-drug-gang/.
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